Student Profile: Lejb Ickowicz

After doing the fuzzy search in the Holocaust Survivor and Victim Catalog, I narrowed the five names that were the closest who were also born between 1926-1931 to two: Eljasz Lajb Ickowicz and Majer Lajb Ickowicz. I decided to go with Eljasz Lajb Ickowicz because after doing research with the street maps, I found out that Eljasz street address was much closer to the school's address than Majer Lajb Ickowicz, who lived on Lustige Gasse (Wiencowa) whereas Eljasz had lived on Pfeffergasse. 

From the reviewer comment, I also added Majer Lajb Ickowicz (b. 1930), who was also born in the time frame given by School #13B. He also had an occupation as SCHUELER, student. He lived on Lustige Gasse, a few blocks away from Eljasz. I put a "Paris?" next to his Ghetto Address because his ghetto address states "PARIS," even though I am not too sure what that means in the database.

Additionally, there are several other candidates that may also be Lejb Ickowicz. Using a fuzzy search on the name, I found Berek Lajb Ickowicz (b. 1930), Josek Lajb Ickowicz (b. 1929), and Lajb Ickowicz (b. 1930). All three of their birth dates fall under the time period of 1926-1931 of school #13B, but not much other information is given about the three of them in terms of occupation (Josek Lajb Ickowicz's occupation is listed under ARBEITER). However, it is important to note that the three are still possibilities for this identity.

Thank you for adding the other name. As the previous commentor pointed out, there are multiple children whose birthday's would make sense for children who attended this school. They may be worth adding in the comments section, just so we know that they are possibilities. For example, I would add Berek Lajb Ickowicz, Lajb Ickowicz, and possibly even Josek Lajb Ickowicz- although his occupation is not student. You don't necessarily need to add them under the name section, but just a quick note in the comments section would suffice. Thank you for your contribution and I look forward to seeing what else you discover!

If you think there are multiple possible signers of a name, please make sure to list all the spellings, dates of birth, addresses, etc. in the appropriate fields on this stage. We don't know yet whether or not there is a connection between where students lived and where they attended school. I agree that you have found one possible candidate to have signed this name--just make sure you look at the others as well.

After doing an exact search on only the last name, we found Aba Ickowicz (b. 1888) who had the same exact address as Eljasz as well as the same deportation number. We believe him to be Eljasz’s father, as he lived in the same address and his birth date seems to be appropriate to have Eljasz as his son. While looking for M. Ickowicz’s family members from another research, we found Faigla Ickowicz (b. 1918) who had the same exact address as Eljasz. We believe her to be his sister due to their age difference. She was registered as an ARBEITER, meaning worker. We also found Hersch Ickowicz (b. 1915) who also had the same exact address. We believe her to be his brother. His occupation was TRICOTARB, which we cannot find the meaning of. We also found Majer Ickowicz (b. 1921) who is also most likely Eljasz’s brother as he has the same address as well.

After we searched Ickowicz within an exact search, we came up with 333 matches. We began looking at every single one to see if we could find any matches. SURA FAJGA ICKOWICZ was #281 of the list of search results and had the same address as Majer. The database indicated she lived also in Lustige 11A 4 and had "Paris." She also had the same transport number and date as Majer Lajb Ickowicz. Her birthdate was 6/21/1893 so we believe she is his mother. We entered her occupation, GEHILFSCHNEID but nothing came up in terms of translation. In the same fuzzy search we believe we found his sister, Genette Ickowicz (b. 1936). Her address and transport number also matched that of Majer Lajb Ickowicz and Sura Fajga Ickowicz, and her occupation was listed as KIND, meaning "child."

As for the transport numbers, transport number 25 is that of Majer Lajb Ickowicz and transport number 10 is that of Eljasz Lajb Ickowicz. Majer Lajb Ickowicz's identification from the Lodz Ghetto Inhabitants Database shows that he was transported on 3/15/1942, while Eljasz Lajb Ickowicz's identification does not include the date. According to the secondary source on Deportations, it is most likely that both of them were sent to Chelmno, Poland to die in the gas vans.

Thank you for putting information down for both students. Just as you have specified which family members belong with which student, be sure to do the same with the transport numbers and places of death (although in this case it is the same for both students). I'm assuming that because you did not say Aba was Eljasz's father, he is Majer's father, but please specify this and relate the transport numbers to the correct student and I will mark this as approved!

If Aba is indeed Majer's father, were you able to find any other family members for him?

As for your process for finding family members, you were absolutely correct. People living at the same address with the same last name are extremely likely to be family members. Also, using their date of births to discover the relation to the student is also correct, so thank you!

Wow! Thank you for your very thorough search and process note. Again, make sure you consider ALL of the possible candidates (5 or 6 of them) from stage 1.